This week I would like to dedicate my blog to my fantastic staff team! Yet another week goes by where they give up their time out of work to support our students, including enterprise stalls at Spindles..

..Schools Partenership Festival ‘Where I Stand’ performances at The Oldham Coliseum..

..and even job interviews – where Ellis based at The Royal Oldham Hospital was offered a paid position this week!

Time and time again the staff go above and beyond to ensure that our students have the best possible opportunities, and that goes further than the classroom. They offer outstanding support pastorally and are continuously looking for opportunities to further develop their skills to ensure that each of our students reach an appropriate destination. So, Medtia staff, if you are reading this (which I hope you are!) you are wonderful! On behalf of our students and families, thank you for everything that you do.

A few weeks ago in my blog, I mentioned a peer to peer review that we participated in at Medtia where head teachers and professionals from other schools within our Trust spent the day looking at our curriculum. I fed back the full report to our staff team this week and once again, I would like to highlight some of their findings to you all:

• ‘There was a real sense of family and support within all of the placements, with trusting, solid relationships clearly formed’
• Respect and trust from members of the wider community had been expressed within each placement and a comment from a member of the public which captured this was, “He is a credit to your school/organisation and we love having him here.”
• The amount of dedication and hard work that had been invested from staff and young people along their journeys with New Bridge absolutely confirmed our ‘Learning Together, Learning for All and Learning for Life’ ethos and values
• Staff were wholly supportive and equally passionate about their work and roles and shared the same levels of enjoyment supporting our young people, which was powerful to see.
• Activ8 students were incredibly engaged whilst working at OCL gym. They could talk confidently about their individual targets and aims for the session and carried out their fitness schedule with a great understanding of how to use the equipment and how each exercise contributed to their personal goals.’
• ‘The Digit4ll students talked with great pride around their successes within their ‘Sea Clear’ enterprise. Students have exceptionally high expectations of themselves and their peers and are extremely motivated to learn and to achieve.’
• There was an overwhelming culture of student led learning within all of the pathways.
• The curriculum at Medtia can be characterised as:

Aspirational

Inspirational

Personalised

Destination Focused

Influential

Life Changing!!

Rigorous

Collaborative

Holistic

Empowering

Ever Evolving

Once again, this truly shows how fantastic our staff and students are and what a difference we are making. I feel extremely proud!

Now over to our staff and students for an update on another busy week for us here at Medtia…

Our Pre-Interns have been working hard over the past few weeks to develop their employability skills. The focus has been trying jobs that you don’t want to do and completing jobs independently whenever possible.

• Rezaul has got ‘Worker of the Week’ this week for having a really good work ethic and for completing his jobs independently and to a high standard..

• Luka has been working on improving his speed and is getting more confident and comfortable at serving customers their meals, providing the right level of customer service..

• Dylan has recognised that he needs to develop his customer service skills and has been working in the café and kitchen at David Lloyd, serving customers their meals and getting catering equipment ready. Well done Dylan for coming out of your comfort zone and for coming out of the gym!

• Josie has be trying things that she doesn’t feel confident with like using hot pans and learning to use the coffee machine..

• Dom has been learning how to deep clean areas of the kitchen and wasn’t really keen on cleaning the fridges but got stuck in. Also, he is getting better with his food preparation -well done Dom!

• Tom is becoming quite the professional in the Atrium kitchen..

– check out his amazing knife skills..

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• Zanub has been learning how to use the pot wash – a job she thought she would never be able to do – and she has been working on her money skills using real items from the café..

• Charlie has been working with Tameside Active to help deliver dance sessions at Hawthorns School..

• He has started to develop his food preparation skills. Again, a massive well done to Charlie for doing jobs you haven’t wanted to try..

• Fahad has been learning how to deep clean the cat pens and always tries his best..

• Kieran has been so happy because he has been able to work with dogs giving them treats but he knows he does this when all the cleaning jobs have been completed..

• Jason is continuing to charm the customers at the Clean Plate Kitchen and is continuing to follow the routines of day. Brilliant Jason, you are always ready and willing to give things a go..

Well done to all the pre-interns, keep up the good work!

Last week we attended the Changing Horizons Event at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the town centre, a fantastic local venue where schools from across Oldham got together for a day of careers options. It was really well organised and our students had a great time moving around the room to the different tables, meeting the different employers and groups. It was quite fast paced, very interactive and highly engaging..

The event was aimed at inspiring the students through the different activities and encouraging them to raise aspirations for future employment. They looked at different areas of construction and planning, using virtual reality headsets and also physically looking at plans and setting out a housing estate. There were representatives from the legal system, the armed forces, the RNLI, a local boxing gym, Border Forces with their sniffer dogs, tech companies and many more..

It was a really great day and we were all shattered by the end but it was so interesting and we have now received our certificate to say we took part. We look forward to the next one!

Now we head over to the Royal Oldham Hospital to catch up with our Bridging the Gap students..

A day in the life of Dominic
Pharmacy Porter at the Royal Oldham Hospital

I start work at 9.10 am. My uniform has to be smart and clean and I must wear my ID badge..

I meet John and we set off on our rounds..

Our first job is to collect all the empty blue pharmacy bags and boxes from the wards and clinics on the top floor..

We return the empties back to the pharmacy. The green boxes go in the back stores and the blue bags go in the pharmacy department. Next, we go collecting on the lower floors. This gives the pharmacy staff chance to get the deliveries ready for us..

When the deliveries are ready, we get our clipboard and recording sheets and enter the amount of bags and type of bags we are delivering onto the sheet. This is very important so that there is a record to say which bags have been dropped off and where. We keep a record by asking the senior nursing staff on each ward to sign for the bags and boxes we hand over. Some of the bags have controlled drugs inside them and these bags are locked with a security tag. There are different coloured security tags. I have learnt what each colour tag is for and which bags to put them on, making them secure..

If we are lucky, someone makes us a brew before our next job. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time!

When we have finished all the medication deliveries, we go down to the large storeroom with our flatbed truck. We load the truck up with boxes of Hemosol and Prismasol, which we have to deliver to the ICU unit..

I have to remember to lift heavy boxes the way I was shown in my training to protect myself..

All ready to deliver to ICU..

I work maximum hours every day and finish my morning placement at 11.30am. If John is busy, I stay until 12pm to help him. After dinner, I start back at work at 1pm and work until 2.30pm.

On a Tuesday afternoon, as part of my Porters placement, I work in the post room. I sort large amounts of mail into the correct pigeonholes..

I also go out on two post rounds with staff collecting mail from different departments around the hospital..

I am enjoying working as a pharmacy porter, I also find it interesting working in the post room with Julie and Jade. The staff are friendly, helpful and the jobs are always interesting.

Congratulations to Rezaul over at David Lloyd Gym who is our new ‘Worker of the Week’..

This weekend, in my other role as a theatre producer, I shall be rocking out at The O2 Ritz in Manchester with my show ‘The Power Ballad Orchestra’. Thankfully I have Sunday to recover before the start of another exciting week at Medtia.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Daniel
Head of Key Stage 5 Pathways

You can view our previous blog entries here

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